Three Essays on Religion |
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action admitted afford agencies analogy animal antecedent appear argument attributes belief benevolence Berkeley Berkeley's called causation cause character Christianity conclusion conditions independent considered contrivance coprolite course of nature Creator cultivated Deism Deity Descartes direct divine doctrine effect Essay evidence evil existence experience external fact favour feelings force freethinkers give ground human mind idea imagination improvement induction inference infinite instinct JOHN STUART MILL justice knowledge laws of nature limited Lysicles Malebranche mankind matter means ment miracle mode moral motive Natural Theology never notion objects omnipotent opinion origin particular perceive perception perfect person pheno phenomena philosophers physical Plato positive possible present probably produced prove purpose question reason regard religion religious revelation scientific sensations sense sentiments speculation spontaneous order sufficient supernatural supposed supposition take place tar-water Theism theory things thought tion tivated true truth universe virtue volition whole word Nature
Popular passages
Page 283 - The table I write on I say exists, that is I see and feel it, and if I were out of my study I should say it existed, meaning thereby that if I was in my study I might perceive it, or that some other spirit actually does perceive it.
Page 30 - In sober truth, nearly all the things which men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one another, are Nature's everyday performances. Killing, the most criminal act recognised by human laws, Nature does once to every being that lives, and in a large proportion of cases after protracted tortures, such as only the greatest monsters whom we read of ever purposely inflicted on their living fellow-creatures.
Page 255 - Who among His disciples or among their proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus or of imagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels ? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee, as certainly not St. Paul...
Page 37 - Nature's general rules and part of her habitual injustice that "to him that hath shall be given, but from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath.
Page 176 - ... in the present state of our knowledge, the adaptations in nature afford a large balance of probability in favour of creation by intelligence.
Page 196 - A Being of great but limited power, how or by what limited we cannot even conjecture ; of great, and perhaps unlimited intelligence, but perhaps, also, more narrowly limited than his power : who desires, and pays some regard to, the happiness of his creatures, but who seems to have other motives of action which he cares more for, and who can hardly be supposed to have created the universe for that purpose alone.
Page 33 - order" which is thought to be a following of the ways of Nature is in fact a contradiction of them. All which people are accustomed to deprecate as "disorder" and its consequences is precisely a counterpart of Nature's ways. Anarchy and the reign of terror are overmatched in injustice, ruin, and death by a hurricane and a pestilence.
Page 111 - The essence of religion is the strong and earnest direction of the emotions and desires towards an ideal object, recognized as of the highest excellence, and as rightfully paramount over all selfish objects of desire.
Page 284 - A little attention will discover to us that the very being of an idea implies passiveness and inertness in it...
Page 15 - ... is. Those who say that we ought to act according to Nature do not mean the mere identical proposition that we ought to do what we ought to do. They think that the word Nature affords some external criterion of what we should do; and if they lay down as a rule for what ought to be...